Hip-hop is 40 and a celebration's in order. So KRS-One is touring the nation, bringing real hip-hop back to where it belongs -- the streets.

"The revolution will not be televised," the MC recently told allhiphop.com. "You keep looking for real hip-hop on these bullshit stations. You're not going to find it! Real hip-hop is meeting in small places. Why? Because it's real culture, it's real street."

Of course, hip-hop has changed a lot since 1973, maybe most in the last decade or so, and not always for the best.

As KRS just told Gawker: "When hip-hop first began, you had to prove every word out your mouth. You couldn't just say, 'Oh, I'm the greatest,' and put out a marketing plan, or buy an award, or buy Billboard magazine, and suddenly you're the greatest."

Unlike the pretenders, this Teacha has the power of mind, body, and soul to show that his skill is the real deal, and he feels the responsibility to keep that standard alive. "We preserve our culture by preserving ourselves," he says. "This is the key to hip-hop, self-creation."